


Night Terrors

by Tenebrais



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-07-12
Updated: 2010-07-12
Packaged: 2017-10-10 12:57:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/100024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tenebrais/pseuds/Tenebrais
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The death of Jade's dreamself has some psychological impact.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Night Terrors

Cold. Darkness, darker than any shade of black she'd ever seen before. Piercing, deafening silence filling her ears. Every sense screaming that there was nothing.  
This is what it must be like to be dead, she thought.

From drifting through the ruins of Prospit, John was snapped back to reality by a piercing scream. As he groggily awoke from a pile of clothes and plush toys, he saw Jade, sitting bolt upright, tears in her eyes.  
Well, that explains the scream.

"Wha's wrong, Jade?" John yawned. "We need t' sleep."  
"I..." she stammered. "I can't!" She turned to look at him. He saw in her eyes a look of sheer terror; a look he had never thought he would see on her face, and a look he dearly hoped he would never have to see again. Instinctively, he crawled over to her and gave her a tight hug.  
"Why not?" He asked. "Bad dreams?"  
She nodded, burying her face in his shoulder. She started to cry. "After... after everything and... and my dream self and..."  
John hushed her. "You're not making any sense, Jade." He tightened his hug. "Just cry it out, then tell me what's wrong."

Jade sobbed into his shoulder for a minute, two, five, maybe more. He stopped counting after a while. Eventually, the sobs died down into sniffs.  
"I've been awake in my sleep for as long as I can remember," she explained. "And now my dream self is dead. I'm dead! And when I go to sleep, I'm dead again." She sniffed and wiped tears from her eyes. "I've already died once. What if something else kills me? I'll never wake up again!

"I'm scared, John," she whimpered.

John sighed, and gripped her hand tightly. "I don't know if I ever told you this, Jade, but... I'm your brother. It's a long story and I'll explain later, but I'll tell you this." He looked straight into her eyes. "Nothing will ever – ever – hurt my sister while there is a single thing I can do to stop it."

Jade looked back into his eyes. "Promise?"

"Promise."

She hugged him tightly again.  
"Now," John said, "we should get some sleep. Dave can't watch over us forever. Or the other Dave. Got to take advantage of the time we have." He started to pull away to return to his makeshift bed.  
"Don't let go," Jade said. "Please."  
"Okay."

With her in his arms, John drifted back into dreams of the golden ruins. He hoped like hell that he would never have to go through what his sister was going through.


End file.
